Research on the Prediction of the Time of Initial Support of Soft Rock Tunnel Based on the Optimized Longitudinal Deformation Profile
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Basic elements and procedures of a scientific manuscript are missing. So, it is recommended to thoroughly revise the manuscript in view of general and technical English, also, the scientific representation of different elements of the conducted project. In the present form, it can be considered a poorly written case report. Also, as another main problem, obtained results are not generalizable for engineering purposes as it simply reports the results for a specific case.
· Manuscript must be revised in view of general and technical English as it is difficult to understand it at some points. It's even the case for the Abstract.
· Abstract should be re-written to better represent the novelty and the main results of the present work (in a more comprehensive form applicable to the prediction of the support installation time).
· The term convergence-confinement is more common in the literature, so it is suggested to replace the convergence-constraint with the convergence-confinement.
· Literature review is poorly written. Many of the important papers on the topic are missing.
· It is claimed that consideration of the spatial effect is the main novelty of the present manuscript. But it has not been clearly presented and described.
· The present work is a case study representing the prediction of the installation time for a studied case and does not provide a general framework for the prediction of the installation time of the support system to be used by practitioners.
· As a concern, basic elements of the CCM, the displacement release coefficient even for elastic cases, and other obvious parameters are described, while the more important parameters and required descriptions are missing.
· The type of rock is classified without providing any reference to the source of the classification system.
· Monitoring system and data are poorly presented (type, placement, technique, measurements, etc.).
· Parameters of Table 2 are not defined.
· None of the parameters in Fig. 5 is described.
· There is not any proof/proper referencing for many sentences and claims (e.g., “it shows that the displacement release coefficient of surrounding rock is not only related to Poisson's ratio but also related to elastic-plastic modulus…”, etc.).
· How is Eq. 9 derived? There is no description of its development. Some of the used terms are not even defined.
· Development of Eqs. 9-1 and 9-2 are poorly described.
· None of the numerical modeling elements and procedure is provided!
· Validation of the numerical modeling is not provided.
Author Response
Response to the Editor and Reviewer Comments
Manuscript ID：applsci-1744004
Title: Research on the Prediction of the Time of Initial Support of Soft Rock Tunnel Based on the Optimized Longitudinal Deformation Profile
Author(s): Yiwen Liang，Wenhua Zha，Zaobao Liu and Xiaohu Liu
Dear Editor, Dear reviewers
We highly appreciate your and the reviewers’ comments and suggestions, which are very helpful for improving our paper. Based on these comments and suggestions, we have made careful modifications on the manuscript. Appended to this letter is our point-to-point response to the comments raised by the reviewers. These comments were reproduced and our responses to each reviewer’s comments were given.
We hope that all these changes fulfill the requirements to make the manuscript acceptable for publication in the journal of Applied sciences. If you have any questions, please contact us immediately. We are grateful for your attention to our manuscript. Once again, thanks very much for your arduous work and instructive suggestions to our manuscript processing.
Yours Sincerely,
Yiwen Liang，Wenhua Zha，Zaobao Liu and Xiaohu Liu
---------------------------------------------------------------
School of Civil and Architecture Engineering,
East China University of Technology,
Nanchang, 330013, P.R. China
Reviewer 1
Basic elements and procedures of a scientific manuscript are missing. So, it is recommended to thoroughly revise the manuscript in view of general and technical English, also, the scientific representation of different elements of the conducted project. In the present form, it can be considered a poorly written case report. Also, as another main problem, obtained results are not generalizable for engineering purposes as it simply reports the results for a specific case.
Q1. Manuscript must be revised in view of general and technical English as it is difficult to understand it at some points. It's even the case for the Abstract.
Abstract should be re-written to better represent the novelty and the main results of the present work (in a more comprehensive form applicable to the prediction of the support installation time).
Authors’ response: Thank you for your meaningful suggestions. We have revised and improved the whole article. The amendments are as follows.
Title: Change the title to Research on the Prediction of the Time of Initial Support of Soft Rock Tunnel Based on the Optimized Longitudinal Deformation Profile.Make it more accurate overview of the full text
Abstract: The abstract part has been modified and improved according to the research background, methods and conclusions, and the missing result data has been added.
Conclusions：
In this paper, the LDP in the CCM is studied, and based on the LDP of surrounding rock, the support construction time of different grades of surrounding rock is proposed. The main achievements are as follows:
(1) By comparing the section monitoring data with the theoretical calculation data, it is found that the deviation of the LDP equation of surrounding rock deduced by Unlu and Gercek is large in the section x≥0. Considering the influence of elastic-plastic modulus, Poisson's ratio, cohesion, internal friction angle, blasting parameters and other factors, it is proposed to add "expanded convergence function" for optimization and improvement.
(2) According to the deformation characteristics of soft rock, it is proposed that the displacement release coefficient value when the displacement increment occurs at the steep point is the best time to apply support. It is concluded that when the Class-III surrounding rock is constructed by the long step method, it is the best to start supporting at about from the tunnel face, When the reserved core soil method is adopted for the construction of Class-IV surrounding rock, it is the best to start the support at about from the tunnel face.
Q2. The term convergence-confinement is more common in the literature, so it is suggested to replace the convergence-constraint with the convergence-confinement.
Authors’ response: Thank you for your meaningful suggestions.We have made relevant modifications.
Q3. Literature review is poorly written. Many of the important papers on the topic are missing.
Authors’ response: Thank you for your meaningful suggestions.We have made relevant modifications.
Introduction：The review increases the research background and leads to scientific problems based on the previous research results.
Q4. It is claimed that consideration of the spatial effect is the main novelty of the present manuscript. But it has not been clearly presented and described.
Authors’ response: Thank you for your meaningful suggestions.We have made relevant modifications.
See lines 96-107 for details
In view of the spatial effect near the excavation surface, the stress mechanism of surrounding rock is simplified as a cantilever beam under the uniformly distributed load q, the excavation surface o is simplified as a rigid constrained end [14], and the excavation surface C, which is not supported far away from the excavation surface, is simplified as a free end.
From this, we can clearly understand the deformation process of surrounding rock under the action of spatial effect: when a certain point B of the tunnel is close to the excavation face O, it will receive the support force F provided by the excavation face, and the virtual support force will make the surrounding rock in a state of stress balance; With the continuous advance of the excavation surface, the smaller the support force received at point B, the greater the deformation. As shown in Figure 1, it is the schematic diagram of spatial constraint effect.
|
(a) |
(b) |
Figure 1. Schematic diagram of spatial effect of excavation face:(a) Semi dome effect; (b) Cantilever beam assumption of excavation face.
Q4.The type of rock is classified without providing any reference to the source of the classification system.
Authors’ response: Thank you for your meaningful suggestions.We have made relevant modifications.
See lines 208-209 for details
According to the survey report and tunnel design and construction drawings.
Q5. Parameters of Table 2 are not defined.None of the parameters in Fig. 5 is described.
How did you concluded that? Based on data ?or theory
Authors’ response: Thank you for your meaningful suggestions.We have made relevant modifications.
Table 2. Fitting parameters of surrounding rock
|
Fitting parameters |
Ⅲ |
IV |
|||
|
YK30+960 |
YK30+911 |
YK31+645 |
YK31+422 |
||
|
RMSE |
0.0678 |
0.0706 |
0.0708 |
0.0601 |
|
|
SSE |
0.0456 |
0.0647 |
0.0653 |
0.0470 |
|
|
R-square |
0.7920 |
0.7920 |
0.7794 |
0.8415 |
|
Notes: RMSE is mean square deviation, SSE is sum variance, R-square is correlation coefficient.
See lines 270-271 for details
σ is the compressive strength of rock mass; τ is the shear strength of rock mass; c is cohesion; φ is the internal friction angle.
Q6. None of the numerical modeling elements and procedure is provided!Validation of the numerical modeling is not provided.
Authors’ response: Thank you for your meaningful suggestions.
We have made relevant modifications.To further verify the rationality and practicality of the optimization and improvement theory; FLAC3D is used to establish a numerical model, in which the model size is 42 m wide, 35 m high, 84 m long, with a total of 23531 grid units and 21902 nodes; The model adopts M-C constitutive equation, and the bottom and both sides are fixed constraints; According to the in-situ stress at the location of the section, for the buried depth of class III surrounding rock is about 150m, 3.45mpa is applied on the top, and the buried depth of class IV surrounding rock is about 120m, 2.4Mpa is applied on the top.
Q7.There is not any proof/proper referencing for many sentences and claims (e.g., “it shows that the displacement release coefficient of surrounding rock is not only related to Poisson's ratio but also related to elastic-plastic modulus…”, etc.).
Authors’ response: Thank you for your meaningful suggestions.We have made relevant modifications.
Q8.Development of Eqs. 9-1 and 9-2 are poorly described.None of the numerical modeling elements and procedure is provided!
Authors’ response: Thank you for your meaningful suggestions.We have made relevant modifications.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The paper discusses the rock tunnel section by comparing and analyzing on-site monitoring data and theoretical calculations. The rationality and effectiveness of the improved longitudinal deformation curve equation of surrounding rock are analyzed by FLAC3D. It also proposes rock displacement when the displacement increment appears to be a sharp increase point. The paper needs improvement before it can be considered for publication. The authors may view my comments for improvement in the attached file.
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Response to the Editor and Reviewer Comments
Manuscript ID：applsci-1744004
Title: Research on the Prediction of the Time of Initial Support of Soft Rock Tunnel Based on the Optimized Longitudinal Deformation Profile
Author(s): Yiwen Liang，Wenhua Zha，Zaobao Liu and Xiaohu Liu
Dear Editor, Dear reviewers
We highly appreciate your and the reviewers’ comments and suggestions, which are very helpful for improving our paper. Based on these comments and suggestions, we have made careful modifications on the manuscript. Appended to this letter is our point-to-point response to the comments raised by the reviewers. These comments were reproduced and our responses to each reviewer’s comments were given.
We hope that all these changes fulfill the requirements to make the manuscript acceptable for publication in the journal of Applied sciences. If you have any questions, please contact us immediately. We are grateful for your attention to our manuscript. Once again, thanks very much for your arduous work and instructive suggestions to our manuscript processing.
Yours Sincerely,
Yiwen Liang，Wenhua Zha，Zaobao Liu and Xiaohu Liu
---------------------------------------------------------------
School of Civil and Architecture Engineering,
East China University of Technology,
Nanchang, 330013, P.R. China
Reviewer 2
The paper discusses the rock tunnel section by comparing and analyzing on-site monitoring data and theoretical calculations. The rationality and effectiveness of the improved longitudinal deformation curve equation of surrounding rock are analyzed by FLAC3D. It also proposes rock displacement when the displacement increment appears to be a sharp increase point. The paper needs improvement before it can be considered for publication. The authors may view my comments for improvement in the attached file.
Q1. Improve in terms of academic English writing grammar ,and punctuation; Improve the title to represent content of the paper while remaining attractive;Reinforce the introduction part with existing literature available
Authors’ response: Thank you for your meaningful suggestions. We have revised and improved the whole article. The amendments are as follows.
Title: Change the title to Research on the Prediction of the Time of Initial Support of Soft Rock Tunnel Based on the Optimized Longitudinal Deformation Profile.Make it more accurate overview of the full text
Abstract: The abstract part has been modified and improved according to the research background, methods and conclusions, and the missing result data has been added.
Introduction：The review increases the research background and leads to scientific problems based on the previous research results.
Q2. Add reference
Authors’ response: Thank you for your meaningful suggestions.
Unlu T, line 81, and reference.
Reference:
Unlu, T., Gercek, H. Effect of Poisson’s ratio on the normalized radial displacements occurring around the face of a circular tunnel. Tunn. Undergr. Space Technol. 2003, 18 (5), 547-553.
Q3. How did you concluded that? Based on data ?or theory
Authors’ response: Thank you for your meaningful suggestions.This conclusion is based on other scholars.
Reference:
Wu Y.,Du W,Zhang G., et al. The Longitudinal Deformation Profile of a Rock Tunnel: An Elastic Analysis.Math Probl Eng.2021, (04):1-12.
Q4. Define the terms used in these equations; how this is relevant? Add data of rock mass classification as well.
Authors’ response: Thank you for reviewing this article carefully. We have given definitions and explanations.About how this is relevant?We have explained on lines 142-150.The classification of surrounding rock is mainly based on the survey report and construction design drawings;Refer to lines 209-210.
Q5. Add support system used and discuss some ground failure events .
Authors’ response: Thank you for your meaningful suggestions.We have made relevant modifications.To further verify the rationality and practicality of the optimization and improvement theory; FLAC3D is used to establish a numerical model, in which the model size is 42 m wide, 35 m high, 84 m long, with a total of 23531 grid units and 21902 nodes; The model adopts M-C constitutive equation, and the bottom and both sides are fixed constraints; According to the in-situ stress at the location of the section, for the buried depth of class III surrounding rock is about 150m, 3.45mpa is applied on the top, and the buried depth of class IV surrounding rock is about 120m, 2.4Mpa is applied on the top.
Q6. it may be computed through plate bearing test and not ucs ;define parameters.
Authors’ response: Thank you for your meaningful suggestions.We have made relevant modifications.
Q7. define modeling parameters used like size of mesh, constitutive model used,boundary conditions, failure condition5,stre5se5 applied or initiated et c.with rationale
Authors’ response: Thank you for your meaningful suggestions.
We have made relevant modifications.To further verify the rationality and practicality of the optimization and improvement theory; FLAC3D is used to establish a numerical model, in which the model size is 42 m wide, 35 m high, 84 m long, with a total of 23531 grid units and 21902 nodes; The model adopts M-C constitutive equation, and the bottom and both sides are fixed constraints; According to the in-situ stress at the location of the section, for the buried depth of class III surrounding rock is about 150m, 3.45mpa is applied on the top, and the buried depth of class IV surrounding rock is about 120m, 2.4Mpa is applied on the top.
Q8. keep the scale of all drawings to be the same for comparison,Also add shear stress, shear strain, yielding and displacement to understand failure
Authors’ response: Thank you for your meaningful suggestions.We have made relevant modifications.See 363-368 for details.
Q9. use standard terminologies like stand-up time
Authors’ response: Thank you for your meaningful suggestions.We have made relevant modifications.
Q10. show figure a and b and add captions for each one;concise the conclusions
Authors’ response: Thank you for your meaningful suggestions.We have made relevant modifications.
Conclusions：
In this paper, the LDP in the CCM is studied, and based on the LDP of surrounding rock, the support construction time of different grades of surrounding rock is proposed. The main achievements are as follows:
(1) By comparing the section monitoring data with the theoretical calculation data, it is found that the deviation of the LDP equation of surrounding rock deduced by Unlu and Gercek is large in the section x≥0. Considering the influence of elastic-plastic modulus, Poisson's ratio, cohesion, internal friction angle, blasting parameters and other factors, it is proposed to add "expanded convergence function" for optimization and improvement.
(2) According to the deformation characteristics of soft rock, it is proposed that the displacement release coefficient value when the displacement increment occurs at the steep point is the best time to apply support. It is concluded that when the Class-III surrounding rock is constructed by the long step method, it is the best to start supporting at about from the tunnel face, When the reserved core soil method is adopted for the construction of Class-IV surrounding rock, it is the best to start the support at about from the tunnel face.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
The paper can be a good research study with practical application in the field of tunnels' execution.
Unfortunately, it is very hard to read and understand due to many grammar and spelling errors and meaningless paragraphs: the use of capital letters in in the middle of a sentence and small letters at the beginning; missing punctuation; missing spaces between words, many repeated words and notions in the same sentence, etc.
The authors adopted a very specific technical language with few details and explanations for unfamiliar readers; this will lower the interest for the paper.
There are abbreviations that need to be explained before their first use: Unlu T, NATM, RMSE, SSE, etc.
Sections like "YK30+960" are not defined / explained / showed in a figure.
The introductory part need should be detailed in order to explain and justify the necessity and the opportunity of the present study.
The main part is well organized, having a logical structure; the methods used are well described (but need revisions in terms of English language), the results need more explanations from the authors' point of view and the conclusions can be improved (in this moment, only no 3 can be considered, the rest are just a reiteration of already presented stuff).
Author Response
Response to the Editor and Reviewer Comments
Manuscript ID：applsci-1744004
Title: Research on the Prediction of the Time of Initial Support of Soft Rock Tunnel Based on the Optimized Longitudinal Deformation Profile
Author(s): Yiwen Liang，Wenhua Zha，Zaobao Liu and Xiaohu Liu
Dear Editor, Dear reviewers
We highly appreciate your and the reviewers’ comments and suggestions, which are very helpful for improving our paper. Based on these comments and suggestions, we have made careful modifications on the manuscript. Appended to this letter is our point-to-point response to the comments raised by the reviewers. These comments were reproduced and our responses to each reviewer’s comments were given.
We hope that all these changes fulfill the requirements to make the manuscript acceptable for publication in the journal of Applied sciences. If you have any questions, please contact us immediately. We are grateful for your attention to our manuscript. Once again, thanks very much for your arduous work and instructive suggestions to our manuscript processing.
Yours Sincerely,
Yiwen Liang，Wenhua Zha，Zaobao Liu and Xiaohu Liu
---------------------------------------------------------------
School of Civil and Architecture Engineering,
East China University of Technology,
Nanchang, 330013, P.R. China
Reviewer 3
The paper can be a good research study with practical application in the field of tunnels' execution.
Unfortunately, it is very hard to read and understand due to many grammar and spelling errors and meaningless paragraphs: the use of capital letters in in the middle of a sentence and small letters at the beginning; missing punctuation; missing spaces between words, many repeated words and notions in the same sentence, etc.
Q1. There are abbreviations that need to be explained before their first use: Unlu T, NATM, RMSE, SSE, etc.
Authors’ response: Thank you for reviewing this article carefully. Unlu T, NATM, RMSE, SSE, etc. have all been defined and explained
Unlu T, line 81, and reference.
Reference:
Unlu, T., Gercek, H. Effect of Poisson’s ratio on the normalized radial displacements occurring around the face of a circular tunnel. Tunn. Undergr. Space Technol. 2003, 18 (5), 547-553.
NATM line 226-227，and make modifications.
RMSE, SSE, etc. Line 249，make notes
Notes: RMSE is mean square deviation, SSE is sum variance, R-square is correlation coefficient.
Q2. Sections like "YK30+960" are not defined / explained / showed in a figure.
Authors’ response: Thank you for reviewing this article carefully. Yk30+960: it is the monitoring section at 30+960 of the right tunnel.
Q3. The introductory part need should be detailed in order to explain and justify the necessity and the opportunity of the present study.
Authors’ response: Thank you for your meaningful suggestions. We have revised and improved the whole article. The amendments are as follows.
Title: Change the title to Research on the Prediction of the Time of Initial Support of Soft Rock Tunnel Based on the Optimized Longitudinal Deformation Profile.Make it more accurate overview of the full text
Abstract: The abstract part has been modified and improved according to the research background, methods and conclusions, and the missing result data has been added.
Introduction：The review increases the research background and leads to scientific problems based on the previous research results.
Q4.The main part is well organized, having a logical structure; the methods used are well described (but need revisions in terms of English language), the results need more explanations from the authors' point of view and the conclusions can be improved (in this moment, only no 3 can be considered, the rest are just a reiteration of already presented stuff).
Authors’ response: Thank you for reviewing this article carefully. For the conclusion part, we made a summary revision.
Conclusions：
In this paper, the LDP in the CCM is studied, and based on the LDP of surrounding rock, the support construction time of different grades of surrounding rock is proposed. The main achievements are as follows:
(1) By comparing the section monitoring data with the theoretical calculation data, it is found that the deviation of the LDP equation of surrounding rock deduced by Unlu and Gercek is large in the section x≥0. Considering the influence of elastic-plastic modulus, Poisson's ratio, cohesion, internal friction angle, blasting parameters and other factors, it is proposed to add "expanded convergence function" for optimization and improvement.
(2) According to the deformation characteristics of soft rock, it is proposed that the displacement release coefficient value when the displacement increment occurs at the steep point is the best time to apply support. It is concluded that when the Class-III surrounding rock is constructed by the long step method, it is the best to start supporting at about from the tunnel face, When the reserved core soil method is adopted for the construction of Class-IV surrounding rock, it is the best to start the support at about from the tunnel face.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The authors did a great job and extensively revised their previously submitted manuscript. Now, it can be accepted for publication. But, if available, modeling and comparing the results with an independent case report including field measurement data can even improve the quality of the manuscript.
Author Response
Response to the Reviewer Comments
Manuscript ID：applsci-1744004
Title: Research on the Prediction of the Time of Initial Support of Soft Rock Tunnel Based on the Optimized Longitudinal Deformation Profile
Author(s): Yiwen Liang，Wenhua Zha，Zaobao Liu and Xiaohu Liu
Reviewer 1
作者做得很好，并广泛修改了他们之前提交的手稿。现在，它可以被接受发布。但是，如果可以的话，将结果与独立的案例报告（包括现场测量数据）进行建模和比较甚至可以提高手稿的质量。
作者回应：我们再次感谢您的宝贵意见和建议。基于这些意见和建议，我们仔细修改了稿件。在此基础上，整篇文章也进行了润色。再次感谢。我深深地祝你每天快乐！
Author Response File: Author Response.PDF
Reviewer 3 Report
The authors succeded in revising most of the observations and comments. I agree with the revised conclusions and with the additions to the introductory part.
A proofreading of the entire paper is required before publication.
Author Response
对审稿人意见的回应
手稿 ID：applsci-1744004
题目：基于优化纵向变形剖面的软岩隧道初始支护时间预测研究
作者：梁毅文，查文华，刘枣宝，刘晓虎
审稿人 3
作者成功地修改了大部分意见和评论。我同意订正结论和对导言部分的补充。
在发表之前，需要对整篇论文进行校对。
作者回应：我们再次感谢您的宝贵意见和建议。基于这些意见和建议，我们仔细修改了稿件。在此基础上，整篇文章也进行了润色。再次感谢。我深深地祝你每天快乐！
Author Response File: Author Response.PDF
